Texas Deputy Fired After Assaulting Twelve-Year-Old Girl

Back on March 3, a very scary incident happened at Oakwood BBQ in Austin, Texas. Sheriff’s deputy Jack Danford Jr. was sitting at the back of the restaurant with his daughter and her boyfriend. A twelve-year-old girl was running around the restaurant with her dog casually playing. At one point, the deputy picked up the dog and petted it. He set it back down and that twelve-year-old began playing with the dog again.

That is when out of nowhere, Deputy Danford allegedly tackled the little girl, jumped on top of her and began punching her several times. “I seen him on top of her, he was hammer-fisting her, it was like UFC style,” Russell Cope, the victim’s step-dad, told Fox 26. No one has any idea why he started doing this.

It was so quick that the deputy allegedly got several punches in. Witnesses surrounded him and pulled him off as quick as they could. The victim's stepfather attempted to pull Deputy Danford off and said he punched him in the face. “I was punching him and it wasn't even [fazing] him, it wasn't even doing nothing,” Cope told KVUE. Cope then kicked him with his steel toe boot, allegedly knocking Danford out cold.

Police eventually came and arrested Deputy Danford after a brief struggle. The victim's family said they had never seen Danford before that night. Arresting officers noted Danford smelled of alcohol. The girl was taken to the hospital and treated for abrasions, bruises and a pulled muscle, and said she “thought she was going to die” during the alleged attack.

Danford has since been charged with public intoxication, resisting arrest, and injury to a child. He bonded out of jail and agreed to a psychological evaluation. He has also been fired from his position in the Sheriff's Department.